When Love Isn’t Working

A Private Intensive for Parents in High-Stakes Families

Because therapy isn’t enough when your child is unraveling—and you’re the one holding it all together.

What This Is

This is not therapy. It’s a high-discretion, high-integrity space for parents navigating what others can’t see: emotional chaos behind a beautiful exterior. Whether your child is spiraling, rejecting help, or cutting you off—this is the structured reset you’ve been looking for.

You’ll learn to lead through chaos, reclaim authorship over your emotional responses, and repair what’s breakable without collapsing into shame, silence, or blame. At the center of this work is breaking free from what we call the Victim/Villain Trap—the cycle of blame, rescue, and emotional collapse that even high-functioning families fall into under pressure.

When a child is in crisis, even the strongest parents can get pulled into survival roles:

  • Victim: “I feel like my life is being controlled by someone else and their chaos.”

  • Villain: “If only they would change, I’d finally be free.”

  • Rescuer: “I run to this person to save me from the one hurting me.”

These roles are reactive. Protective. Understandable. But they keep you stuck.

The Trap Is Familiar

The Shift Is Powerful

This intensive helps you move from unconscious reaction to conscious leadership, using what we call the Empowerment Triangle:

  • Creator: “This is my life. I am in charge of what I build next.”

  • Challenger: “This person is a challenge—not my captor.”

  • Coach: “I can model how to stay grounded, even when others aren’t.”

You don’t need permission to lead from your own values. We’ll help you get there—and stay there.

Facilitators

  • Cindy Finch, LCSW

    Founder of Epic Comeback, licensed clinical social worker, trauma-informed leadership coach, and reinvention strategist. With 20 years of experience guiding families through collapse and recovery, Cindy brings both clinical depth and lived resilience. Her work is trusted by CHOC, top-tier therapists, and high-impact families across Southern California.

  • Nancy Epstein

    DBT Coach and parent of a child in recovery. Nancy’s journey through emotional crisis, failed treatment, and the transformative power of DBT brings insight, grit, and compassion. She helps families build skills that regulate relationships—not just emotions.

  • Sue Wojtaszek

    Parent Ambassador

    Sue is a survivor of the trap and your steady companion throughout the class. She knows what it means to stay, to lead, and to heal—when every instinct says run.

“I’ve spent hundreds of thousands on my daughter’s treatment. This was the first thing that actually helped me become someone she could return to.”

— Parent, Newport Coast

  • Your child:

    • Emotionally volatile, rejecting, manipulative, suicidal, or self-harming

    • In therapy (or refuses it), but nothing’s really shifting

    • You feel blamed, cut off, or helpless

    You:

    • The one holding everything together

    • Respected, resourced, and exhausted

    • Tired of therapy alone. Ready for something bolder

    • Practical tools that hold under pressure

    • The ability to stay calm when others aren’t

    • Scripts and boundaries that land

    • Fewer landmines. Fewer regrets.

    • A new map: from Drama Triangle to Empowerment Triangle

    • Less chaos. More connection.

    • Boundaries that hold. Conversations that don’t explode.

    • A way to lead, even when your child is in crisis

    • A clearer sense of what’s yours—and what’s not

    • A steady return to your own grounded authority

  • Week 0 (Optional): Why This, Why Now
    Prepare your nervous system. Map what this is costing you.

    Week 1: Naming the Trap
    Spot your survival roles. Make room for something stronger.

    Week 2: Disarming the Inner Scripts
    Trade reactivity for grounded response.

    Week 3: Big Girl Panties & Brutal Truths
    Grieve what didn’t happen—without abandoning yourself.

    Week 4: Regulate to Relate
    Use the body to stabilize. Lead from the inside out.

    Week 5: Healing in Real Time
    Practice repair. Learn structured vulnerability.

    Week 6: Designing Your Exit Plan
    Make the shift sustainable. Exit the triangle for good.

    Week 7: The Plot Twist is You
    Integrate, reflect, and re-author your role.

    • 7 live Zoom sessions (capped at 15 participants)

    • Optional onboarding Week 0

    • Custom-designed workbook + weekly strategies

    • 30-day post-course integration guide

    • Private alumni circle (by invite only)

    • Bonus: Surviving the Holidays workshop

    • Tuition: $749

    • Start Date: September 18, 2025

    • (No class Oct 2 for Yom Kippur)

    • Scholarships available upon request

Ready to Begin?

You don’t need your co-parent to participate.
You don’t need your child to change first.
You just need clarity, structure, and a new way forward.